ORLANDO, Fla. — Pepperdine men's tennis junior Edward Winter advanced to the second round of the NCAA Singles Championship with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Harvard's Melchior Delloye on Tuesday.
Making his second career NCAA appearance, Winter beat the unseeded Harvard senior in a match where Delloye only held serve twice. Winter shook off early nerves, had answers when Delloye raised his level in the second set and played his best stretch of games late in the second set to seal the win.
"Ed managed the nerves well," Pepperdine Director of Tennis Adam Schaechterle said. "His level of play improved as the match wore on. We are excited for a battle tomorrow between two of the top ten players in college tennis."
Delloye won the first break point of the match in the third game, however, Winter got the break back in the fourth game to put the match back on serve. After consolidating the break, Winter broke Delloye at deuce for a 3-2 lead — one he would not relinquish. Winter followed that up with a strong, but quick service game before easily breaking Delloye for the 6-2 first-set win.
The second set had a shakier start. Neither player could hold serve for the first four games. Although Delloye rose to the challenge of hanging with Winter in cross-court forehand rallies, eventually his forehand started to break. Trailing 3-2 with Delloye serving, Winter broke Delloye after a long exchange, then held serve for 4-2, kickstarting his strongest stretch of play in the match. In the seventh game, Winter advanced to the net at will, hit winners and conceded just one point to Delloye before breaking him for a 5-2 lead.
Despite the scoreline, the rest of the second set was not straightforward. In Delloye's final service game, both players took advantage of the new electric line calling challenge system to mixed results. Delloye went up 30-0 on an overturned challenge call, then immediately needed to use a medical timeout, stalling the match. After a three-minute delay, Delloye went back on court and eventually held serve.
With Winter up 30-0 in his final service game, Delloye challenged the ruling that Winter's serve was in. Delloye's challenge was unsuccessful, so the score was 40-0, Winter. However, since Delloye was unsuccessful with a challenge earlier in the match, his second incorrect challenge resulted in a point penalty, giving Winter the 6-2, 6-3 win.
Tomorrow at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT, Winter will face 6-seed Kenta Miyoshi of Illinois in the second round. A win tomorrow would give Winter All-American status and the Waves a player in the round of 16 for the second consecutive year. All pertinent links can be found on the men's tennis team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.
ABOUT PEPPERDINE MEN'S TENNIS
Pepperdine men's tennis has a longstanding tradition of success, highlighted by an NCAA Championship in 2006, which came 54 years after its first NAIA Championship in 1952. Robbie Weiss recorded the program's first NCAA singles championship in 1988 after the program saw doubles national championships in 1984 and 1985. 44-time WCC Champions, Pepperdine has reached 40 NCAA Tournaments and six NCAA Regionals in its history with 53 total All-Americans.
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